Better Teaching with Less Time and Stress: Improving Teaching Efficiency and Effectiveness

1. Better Teaching with Less Time and Stress:Improving Teaching Efficiency and Effectiveness FAU Faculty Workshop February 27, 2004 Lynn Appleton College of Arts & Letters Timothy LenzTeaching Learning Center Thomas Pusateri Assessment Director

2. Memory: Experts v. NovicesWhat are some implications of these differences for effective teaching? • Differences in prior knowledge • Amount of information in attention span • Organization of memoryImplications? • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - • Reduce content: Don’t “cover the book”! • Focus on key concepts • Provide a brief outline • Consider the course’s purpose in context (Prerequisite? Gen Ed? Attract majors?)

3. How People LearnBransford, Brown & Cocking (2000)http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html/ What are the implications for teaching? • Students enter courses with preconceptions • Building student competence requires: • A foundation of factual knowledge • A conceptual framework • Organization for retrieval and application • “Teach” through understanding “learning” • Articulate learning goals • Help students monitor their progress

4. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) (Angelo & Cross, 1993) • Prior knowledge • Misconception/Preconception Check (#3) • Recall & Understanding • Minute Paper (#6) • Skill in applying information • Application Cards (#23) • Locating other CATs • http://iea.fau.edu/pusateri/assess/pedagogy.htm

5. Misconception checkWhat are some common misconceptions or preconceptions by students in your discipline? • Adopt this CAT: • Start of lecture on topic • Ungraded T/F, M/C, or Short Essay test • Explain the CAT’s purpose to students EXAMPLE: Astronomy What makes seasons change? Common student responses: The weather The distance between the earth and sun changes The tilt of the earth I don’t know Only one response is correct. http://www.flaguide.org/cat/diagnostic/diagnostic7.htm

6. Measuring recall and understanding: The Minute Paper • What was the most important point? • What was the muddiest point? • What question remains unanswered? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - • End of class: Collect & Summarize • Middle of class: Think – Pair – Share – Report • Frequency (Not necessarily every class) • Adapting to large classes http://www.flaguide.org/cat/minutepapers/minutepapers7.htm

7. Skills in applying information:Application cards • Example from psychology:How are parts of the brain used while driving? Cerebellum Motor Cortex Occipital lobe Somatosensory cortex Hippocampus Amygdala • Think about a difficult topic from your own class. How might you use application cards for presenting that topic? http://www.siue.edu/~deder/assess/cats/apps9.html

8. Angelo’s recommendations • Don't use them if you can’t/won’t change. • Collect only what you’ll process by next class. • Don't simply adopt CATs; adapt them. • Use CATs only if you can imagine their benefits. • Promote a self-fulfilling prophecy: Explain why you use CATs. Students will likely follow along. • Teach students how to give useful feedback. • Tell them how you’ll adapt to what you learned.

9. Teaching efficiency: Scoring Rubrics • Example of a rubric on writing • Writing and grading essays (handout) • Steps in designing a rubric: • Identify major categories for grading • Identify levels for each category (3 or 4) • Determine point values for each level http://www.flaguide.org/cat/rubrics/rubrics7.htm • Online examples: Rubistarhttp://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php